Dr.
Farooq Hassan, an expert in international law, found me at the IOL
booth at the
Doha
Conference and said he wanted to talk with me. We had lunch together
and afterwards he repeated many of his comments on the recorder.
IslamOnline.net:
Could you tell me again a little bit about your professional
experience.
Dr.
Farooq Hassan: I’m the ambassador for the World Family Alliance
at the UN and I’m also an attorney at law and a professor of law at
Harvard
University
. And I was an ambassador for Pakistan at the UN and I was also a
delegate of Pakistan, an expert on the UN Human Rights Commission, the
Sub-Commission, the National Criminal Court, so I have served Pakistan
in the last fifteen or twenty years for all the important
international legal fora including the world court.
IOL:
You were saying before that you felt that this conference was not
meeting the needs perhaps. Is that the way to say it?
Dr.
Farooq Hassan: Well, I think the agenda items that have been
discussed are important and they are very wide in their nature and
they cover a of number of dealings—sociology, economics,
children’s affairs, and so on.
But
what I think is missing is the problems that are connected with legal
complexities that are arising and that are bound to arise in the
future dealing with the international rules and norms that are
emanating from the Human Rights Commission, the Sub-Commission of UN
laws. Those things are not being focused upon in this conference for
the reason that I do not understand, but I think there should have
been a full third session devoted to the complexities of international
conventional law that is being made so that the people here could
become educated and probably could come up with the solutions. I
raised these points also in the plenary session briefly to the entire
audience, that what was needed basically was an analysis, an
assessment of the legalities that are arising as a result of the
pro-family work.
The
third thing that I think is missing, I suppose, is the acknowledgement
in a very bold way of the contribution of the Islamic States. The
entire pro-family movement in the international field has been
substantially carried by the bulk of Islamic countries. And had it not
been for the Islamic countries’ concerted effort, I’m sure, in
2003 and 2004 alone—just in the last two years—there would have
been the passing of the Sexual Orientation Resolution that was
presented by Brazil and Canada that simply wanted to proclaim that
sodomy and homosexuality is a fundamental human right. If that comes
on board as a law norm or as a rule of international law, then clearly
the great bulk of progress that has been achieved by pro-family
protagonists over the last twenty years goes by the board.
And
that would supplement the efforts at the UN and at the national level
in the United States of cases like the US Supreme Court case of Texas
and the Massachusetts Supreme Court of Greenwich that essentially held
two things: first, that sodomy is not a crime and in the Massachusetts
case, that there is nothing in the Constitution preventing a man and a
man from getting married. But these are very pernicious and ominous
developments. And then there’s the case of
Sweden
which has a constitutional law allowing same-sex marriage, in fact
that went one step ahead in prosribing criticism of this conduct,
[thus] changing the standard.
These
are very, very far-reaching legal matters of a dynamic kind which can
produce their own consequences and I think there should have been an
attempt at this conference to focus on such matters.
IOL:
You were part of the organizing committee for this conference, were
you not? Did you bring up that issue at that time?
Dr.
Farooq Hassan: I think there was no such formality in the
organizing committee I was on. … This particular conference was
actually organized by a small group of people principally from the
State of Qatar’s Supreme Family Council and in the end what’s been
decided is what’s been decided.
IOL:
Do you think there should be more conferences, maybe not of this sort
but of the kind you were saying that will address the legal issues?
Dr.
Farooq Hassan: I think that any conference, any meeting of the
minds is a splendid idea because when you get so many learned people
coming from all over the world then you have a … great chance, a
great opportunity, a great experience to come up with new ideas, new
norms, to new analysis to canvas and to smooth out the wrinkles and to
come up with solutions to the problems that have been identified.
IOL:
What would be one way that people with expertise in the law could help
NGOs to do a better job?
Dr.
Farooq Hassan: What I really think is needed in this game, if I
can call it, this conflict that is bound to arise between pro-family
and anti-family protagonists is the issues are going to be fought not
on social or moral battles but a legal battle. I don’t think
there’s going to be any debate morally on whether sodomy is good or
bad. But it’s going to be debated in law court whether sodomy should
be allowed or not allowed. And there I think what is needed basically
is a legal presentation, formulation, presentation, preparation of
cases, rulings, laws that are necessary for that kind of a conflict.
IOL:
Do you think we should have conferences that concentrate more on legal
matters?
Dr.
Farooq Hassan: I think so because clearly the battleground for
future and for present that are drawing up, that are likely to be
contested very vociferously and very painstakingly are in the legal
fora in the Human Rights Commission. The Sub-Commission of the UN
General Assembly and other legal fora that exist in the world of human
rights field. To proceed, keep in mind that the real conflict here is
between human rights norms and basically norms based on morality.
Religious-based
norms are the ones that have geared and emanated the philosophy of
marriage. The legal human rights norms are the product of the last 50
years. But there, there’s a direct conflict, for example, between
freedom of person and freedom of child, freedom of women against
family, which basically is an institution which has its own rules, its
own dynamics. But therefore it really has be a very subtly devised,
focused analysis, … and clearly this can only be done by highly
skilled lawyers who are trained in international human rights law, who
are trained in international law, who are trained in UN law, and to
debate these matters, hopefully in a friendly atmosphere.
IOL:
Most NGOs don’t have those type of people with them. Is there a
solution for them?
Dr.
Farooq Hassan: You’re right, that is a very difficult problem
because I have seen that even here I’ve found that here there are
many, many organizations, many good organizations, but they really
don’t have anyone with the expertise on a voluntary basis an expert
in human rights.
But
what I think can be done is that the ones that are available should be
utilized in depth by all the NGOs and I’m sure that the ones that
are available would be very happy to be associated. I am for one
always available to any NGO that wants any free voluntary assistance
that is needed. I’d be happy to provide and I’m sure there are
others like me working in the field who would be happy to do so.
IOL:
It seems like an awful lot of the NGOs here are from the States, a few
from
Europe
, and then there’s the ones from the Muslim world. Is there a way to
connect these groups a little bit more so they can work
together—other than the language barrier?
Dr.
Farooq Hassan: I think there are two points to consider here.
First is the modality of interaction. The Net I think is by far the
most efficient mechanism ever devised by mankind so I think that must
be utilized. However, the utilization of the Net presupposes time,
awareness of the problem, and what to locate. And there I think it
needs a lot of time for the people who are not aware of the legal
problem to be educated on that matter. So I think that the ones that
have the capacity to educate—like the big NGOs from
America
—they should have special focused presentations on the Web site
based on the field of a legal kind and identify the problems.
IOL:
Another problem you said here is that a lot of the speakers
are—because they’re based in the States or wherever—that their
statistics are dealing with problems in the States or Europe and in
that sense they are exporting their problems or assuming that the same
problems occur in other parts of the world.
Dr.
Farooq Hassan: Yes, this is correct. I have always maintained and
I have heard some great experts of this kind from
America
particularly, who come out with statistics dealing with divorce rates
and single parents … from
America
. I don’t see the application of American data to
India
or
Pakistan
or
Nigeria
. So I think there has to be a very intelligent and focused, an
analytical effort by those who are able to master these issues in a
meaningful manner to make sure that the data is applied to applicable
situations. There are not very many that can be applied. But I think
regionally the problems of divorce and so on are different from region
to region and similarly the problems of marriage and family are
different from country to country and region to region. And I think
that kind of a focus should have been brought up in this conference
and I think that has not been done. It has been presumed that there
are universal situations, universal norms, but I don’t think that is
true. But I think the problems and the situations in the West and
North America
are different from the ones that exist in
Asia
,
Southeast Asia
, and
Africa
. And that kind of a detailed examination, I think, is still to be
done by experts and NGOs.
Related
Links:
*
DPhil, BA Juris, MA, MLitt
(Oxon); DCL (Columbia); DIA (Harvard); Of Lincoln’s Inn, Barrister
at Law, United Kingdom; attorney at law, United States; senior
advocate Supreme Court (QC) of Pakistan; special UN ambassador for
family for the World Family Alliance; advisor to four prime ministers
of Pakistan on law and foreign affairs; delegate to the United
Nations, NY, and to the High Commission on Human Rights and to the
Sub-Commission on Human Rights, Geneva; leader of Pakistan’s
delegation to the International Criminal Court Prep Coms., NY;
delegate to UN General Assembly Sessions. Also, inter alia, on the
Faculties of Foreign Affairs & Law, Harvard University; the
Secretary General, American Asian Institute of Strategic Studies,
Boston; international legal counsel before transnational tribunals and
US Congress; David M. Kennedy Scholar of International Studies,
Kennedy Center, Brigham Young University 2003-04; president, Pakistan
Family Forum; member International Advisory Board, United Families
International. You may write to Dr. Hassan at family_under_attack@islam-online.net.
